MalFormed Tiny Starfish on New Clam

[Reefers4U]

Found this guy crawling around the mantel of my new clam

Are these starfish a clam predator?

It is tan and white and not symmetrical as far as i can tell

 

[Chuckd76]

It's an asterina star.
It's asymmetrical because it's lost limbs to reproduce or something picked them off.
Some of them (the grey ones, I believe) are known to eat corals but I've never seen the ones in my tank eating any.
I'm not sure long term how they do with clams but if it makes you feel any better I had one crawling around on my derasa for a couple of days last week with no visible ill effects.

 

[Sk8r]

They're rather nice if you don't have anything they eat. Yes, they nosh coraline, but in most mature tanks that's a recommendation, not a problem.

 

[Reefers4U]

Thanks guys - I thought so but just wanted to check given the malformed body.

 

[Crooked Reef]

I have had tanks for 16 years and have had hundreds of them over the years. So far I haven’t had a coral get eaten by any. There is apparently a species that will, but I have never seen it. As for coraline, my three urchins pretty much take care of that so I can’t really say how many it would take before they could decimate the coraline population in a healthy reef.